How to push your endurance training further

It is all too easy to get stuck in a rut when training for endurance. It can become very comfortable - running the same distance every morning and being satisfied with the all too familiar results.

Push your endurance training further with these top tips:

Nutrition

Limit your meat intake

Sounds like a strange idea, right? The fact is that meat is very difficult to digest, and it takes a lot of time and energy for your body to break down the nutrients for fuel.

Increase your fat intake

As a general rule, your fat intake should not equal more than 25-30% of your daily calories. Try eating more nuts, seeds and other legumes that contain unsaturated fats.

Training

Periodize your workouts

Spend time recording how much you’re running in a week. Your goal should always be to increase the volume and intensity of your workouts. Increasing the volume is easy - run more. Increasing the intensity can be done by running up hills, down hills, and on unstable surfaces.

Try tempo training

Tempo training is a method that has been used by Olympic runners for decades. Using a 400M track, time your 1KM run—making sure that you’re running as quickly as possible. Time this on three separate occasions so that you know it's a consistent time. This will now serve as your 100% standard. Tempo training is pace running at different percentages - all connected to your original time. It will help you gage pace, and increase volume and intensity at the same time.

Try the following workout:

1KM @80%

2KM @60%

3KM @60%

1KM @80%

1KM @100%

Take 3-4 minute rests between each running set. Your heart rate should nearly come back to a resting state before the next round. In this workout, you run 8KM - pretty average for a standard runner, but the use of tempo will improve running form, power, and endurance.